


Outsider

by vix_spes



Series: Fan Flashworks Challenges [30]
Category: North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell | UK TV
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-02
Updated: 2016-03-02
Packaged: 2018-05-24 07:48:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6146665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vix_spes/pseuds/vix_spes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It takes Margaret Hale a long time to feel as though she belongs in Milton.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Outsider

**Author's Note:**

> If you'd prefer to comment on LJ, you can do so [here](http://vix-spes.livejournal.com/235818.html)

For Margaret, one of the hardest things about their move to Milton from Helston had been the overwhelming feeling that she didn’t belong. Milton was a strange world, a constant assault on her senses and she felt as though she couldn’t make a single step without doing something wrong.  
  
In Helston, Margaret had felt like she had a purpose. She had been able to visit her father’s parishioners, delivering a basket if it was needed or simply offering much needed company. Even in London, she could look after Sholto and feel useful in doing so. Here in Milton, every act of kindness was viewed with suspicion, offers of help seen as a slight or an inability to provide for their family. Margaret had cursed the Northern sense of pride more than a few times since she had arrived in the North.  
  
She had hoped that once she married, once she became Mrs John Thornton, that things would improve. In a lot of respects they had. She certainly felt more a part of Milton society these days; it was amazing how much more willing to talk to her people were when she carried the name Thornton instead of Hale. She loved her husband dearly and knew that he adored her in return but that still didn’t change the fact that the only place she truly still felt like an outsider was in her own home.  
  
Inside the mill was a different matter. That had always been John’s domain and it was very much still his, he was just more than willing to share it with his wife. Margaret was a familiar face on the factory floor as not only did she have friends among the workers – friends that she had refused to give up despite the social disparity between them – but she had started her own initiatives to improve lives for the workers at Thornton’s. Initiatives that she not only thought up but oversaw with an eagle eye.  
  
Still, it didn’t change the fact that, whilst the factory might be shared between Margaret and her husband, Margaret’s mother-in-law ruled the roost inside the home. Margaret was doing her best to pick her battles carefully while John trod a fine line in an attempt to placate both mother and wife. Margaret liked to think that she saw the best in everyone but, to be perfectly frank, she was convinced that her mother-in-law was a lost cause and the day that they persuaded Mrs Thornton to go and live with Fanny couldn’t come soon enough.


End file.
